Hi, I am Niccolò Tempini, welcome to my personal webpage. I am a researcher interested in understanding how our society is changing because of the diffusion of digital information technology and data.

My background is interdisciplinary – I hold degrees in Philosophy (Italian MA and BA equivalents) and MSc and PhD in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science – and I try to make these components combine in my work. Currently I am Research Fellow in Data Science at the EGENIS Centre, part of the Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology Department at University of Exeter.

In the project The Epistemology of Data-intensive Science I work closely together with philosopher of data Sabina Leonelli, to develop an empirical understanding of the conditions and challenges of data-intensive science and big data in the biomedical domain. Please consult our Data Studies Group website, for updated project news, reports, links and resources, and information on other sister projects run by other members of our interest group.

Please do get in touch if you would like to visit. Or for any query you might have!

Currently, my research is focused on a set of world-leading projects in the biomedical domain. Their common feature is a focus on re-using, linking, generating and sharing vast quantities of scientific and administrative data from resources that have been made available from a variety of distributed actors and institutions. The results of this intensive fieldwork are now starting to take shape and they will contribute to a growing debate on the implications and opportunities of new developments around digital data.

Since my PhD research I have directly studied, and actively participated in, the development of data-intensive research infrastructures. These projects rely on online databases and advanced data management techniques of classification, aggregation and computation to foster or make possible new kinds of research processes and arrangements. They sit at the interface of computer and information science and the biomedical disciplines. There are important phenomena associated to this convergence that I think are extremely important to scholarship, associated to change in work processes and work roles, the shifting boundaries of formal organizations and institutions, the role of data and technology as organizational and collaboration devices and the translation of evidence as data travel across contexts.

Following studies in Philosophy (BA, MA) and Information Systems (MSc), I was recently awarded a PhD in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. The dissertation, passed with no corrections, focused on the management of distributed social media networks for medical scientific research involving patient self-reporting. Through the embedded case study of PatientsLikeMe – an organization that collects health data from distributed patients and uses the data for conducting medical research – I have been looking at how technology is developed to govern the patient user base and produce the information fuelling the organisation’s research business model. The research shows how medical research outcomes are linked to new infrastructural and organizational arrangements, and explores the consequences of these new socio-technical configurations. This research has been developed also through the collaboration with the Social Science, Health and Medicine department at King's College of London, to which I was affiliated throughout the duration of the project.

I had the luck to practice and teach information systems extensively. Both in research collaborations and in the classroom I have been interested in problems of information systems engineering, interaction design, data management, and the organization of distributed digital work. Collaborators in academia and external organizations (start-ups) appreciated my thinking out of the box and the diversity of my interests and skills. My students appreciated structure and breadth in the way we approached the topics of interest.

My research interests are broad and include data-related phenomena (e.g. big data, social data, information infrastructures, platforms, standards, formalization, experiential computing, social media, health and bio informatics) and the social practices and processes which these phenomena are intersecting with (e.g. scientific research, biosociality, citizen science, distributed participation, security, value and time). I have reviewed for a number of international journals from multiple disciplines and I am member of several professional societies: Association for Studies of Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST UK), Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Society for the Philosophy of Information (SPI), Association for Information Systems (AIS), European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB) (2017–), European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA).

2015. Time in Boundary Infrastructures: On Speed and Collaboration in Social Media Research Networks The 5th international workshop on Infrastructures for healthcare (IHC): Patient-centred Care and Patient generated Data, Trento, June 18-19th. Workshop link here.
Request manuscript here (address above).

2011. E- Government and Bureaucracy: The Role of Functional Simplification in the Case of the Venice Municipality. TGov ’11. Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK. Co-author: Antonio Cordella.
Manuscript download here.

Blog and Magazine Articles

2013. Book review: Big Data: a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. LSE Review of Books, 02 May 2013.
LSE repository download here.
Reprinted abridged on Mercury 2(5/6): 25-26. This version here.

2014. Governing Social Media: Organising information production and sociality through open, distributed and data-based systems. Doctoral Dissertation. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
LSE repository download here.

If you would like the slides, it is possible, but please drop a line (address above).

2017, Data & Society: the context for social sensing (invited comments). “Social sensing of health and wellbeing impacts from pollen and air pollution” Launch Workshop, Exeter, May 23rd.

2017, "PatientsLikeMe": What Happens to Medical Research When Patients Share Their Data Online. Social Epidemiology Seminar Series, Instituto de Salud Carlos III – National School of Public Health, Madrid, April 4th.

2016, Enabling data-intensive science from PHRs: reflections from the study of PatientsLikeMe and some Big Data for Public Health research infrastructures. International eHealth Workshop, Università di Bologna (SPISA), Bologna, June 6-7th. Workshop link, and link to my talk

2016, ‘Til Data Do Us part. How data value creation unites and divides people in social media infrastructures. Seminar, Joint Doctoral Programme in Law Science and Technology, Department of Law, Università di Torino, May 6th.

2016, ‘Til Data Do Us Part. Guest Lecture, Digital Business Models course (BEMM129), University of Exeter, March 16th.

2015, ‘Til Data Do Us Part: On data, data structures and the commensuration of value forms in social media infrastructures. Research Seminar, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, December 9th.

2015, ‘Til Data Do Us Part: On data, data structures and the commensuration of value forms in social media infrastructures. Research Seminar, Institute for Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts Universität (Kiel), December 7th.

2017, Collaborative Science and the Epistemic Role of Project Management: the Case of a Multi-partner, Interdisciplinary Research and Infrastructure Project. 2017 Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, 16-21st July 2017. Conference website here.

2017, Where Health and Environment Meet: Geolocation as Invariance Strategy for Integrating Diverse Data Sources. 2017 Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, 16-21st July 2017. Conference website here. Co-author: Sabina Leonelli.

2016. Time in Boundary Infrastructures: On Speed and Collaboration in Social Media Research Networks. 5th Spaces of Evidence Workshop, Exeter, May 16-17th. Workshop link here.

2015. Time in Boundary Infrastructures: On Speed and Collaboration in Social Media Research Networks The 5th international workshop on Infrastructures for healthcare (IHC): Patient-centred Care and Patient generated Data, Trento, June 18-19th. Workshop link here.
Request manuscript here (address above).

2014. –Poster– PatientsLikeMe.com: Developing medical research through social data. 4th LSE Research Festival, May 8th.

2011. E- Government and Bureaucracy: The Role of Functional Simplification in the Case of the Venice Municipality. TGov ’11. Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK. Co-author: Antonio Cordella.
Manuscript download here.

Upcoming, links & CV

I try to keep this up-to-date... ;)

2017: Find me at the EPSA (European Philosophy of Science Association) Conference, this year in Exeter, 6-9 September.

Another important appointment here in Exeter will be in November: we are organizing and hosting a 4th and last workshop, as part of the ERC project, which will be about philosophical, sociological and anthropological perspectives on data and data journeys. The work will be developed further with all contributors working closely. If you are interested in this space, you will be interested to hear about the outcome... If you want to know more, please drop a line.